If you're already running a full anti-malware suite, you might not even realize that Windows Defender is already installed with Windows, and is probably wasting precious resources. Here's how to get rid of it.

Now, just to be clear, we're not saying that we hate Windows Defender. Some spyware protection is better than none, and it's built in and free! But… if you are already running something that provides great anti-malware protection, there's no need to have more than one application running at a time.

Disable Windows Defender

Unfortunately, Windows Defender is completely built into Windows, and you're not going to actually uninstall it. What we can do, however, is disable it.

Open up Windows Defender, go to Tools on the top menu, and then click on Options.

Now click on Administrator on the left-hand pane, uncheck the box for “Use this program”, and click the Save button.

You will then be told that the program is turned off. Awesome!

If you really, really want to make sure that it never comes back, you can also open up the Services panel through Control Panel, or by typing services.msc into the Start Menu search or run boxes. Find Windows Defender in the list and double-click on it…

And then you can change Startup type to Disabled.

Now again, we're not necessarily advocating that you get rid of Windows Defender. Make sure you keep yourself protected from malware!